The Rising Stars

The International Festival “Rising Stars” came as an idea from the numerous state representations by the organization “Mollëkuqet”, in international festivals. Thus, from the experience we gained, we saw the lack of such an event in our country. Thus, we took the initiative to organize the first edition in 2018.

The first edition was held in 2018. There were a total of 50 contestants / jury members from 6 European countries from Kosovo, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Germany, Romania, Estonia. The Grand Prix Winner was Albina Azemi from Kosovo.

The second edition was characterized by a significant increase in interest, increasing the number of participants in 67 of 12 European countries such as: Kosovo, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Germany, Romania, Estonia, Turkey, Italy, Belarus, Russia, Greece, Serbia. The Grand Prix Winner was Klea Dina from Kosovo.

The third edition of 2020 was the most challenging due to the emergence of the pandemic and strict rules against the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, since the festival is traditional, we did not want to miss a year. We decided to do it all on the online platform. Although in unusual circumstances, this edition turned out to break every personal and general record in the number of entries of competitors and participating states. We had 167 competitors, 50 jury members, from 27 countries such as: Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Moldova, Malta, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, Portugal, Estonia, Italy, Greece, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Lebanon, South Africa, America, Serbia, Belarus, Turkey, Mexico, Israeli, England. The Grand Prix Winner was Rinea Vitija from Kosovo.

The challenge continued in the 4th edition of 2021 due to active rules against the spread of COVID-19 virus. This year the festival was physically held. We had 40 competitors and 13 countries present: Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Turkey, Israel, Austria, Poland, Netherlands, England, Serbia, Romania, Italy, Moldova. Many countries had confirmed their participation in advance but due to the pandemic rules in their countries it was impossible to be present in Kosovo.
We cannot forget to mention that the first night of the festival went in the best way, but it did not happen that way with the final night. The competent authorities stopped holding the final night strictly 30 minutes before it started due to the pandemic even though we were respecting all the rules and had the official permission from the Regional Police. The reasons are still unclear but this case gave us the motivation to realize the 5th edition to perfection.